'Going in Style' actor Christopher Lloyd returns to his nutty side

Sunday

Apr 2, 2017 at 9:04 PM

By Ed Symkus, Daily News Correspondent

There have been lots of twists and turns in the career of actor Christopher Lloyd. After some dabbling onstage in his Connecticut high school, he moved to New York and, under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse, got a taste of the real thing, tackling serious characters in serious plays. He moved on to professional work in Shakespeare and Chekhov, then after years of auditions, broke into film with “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” But his first major TV role, as Jim Ignatowski on “Taxi,” turned out to be the beginning of him being typecast as an eccentric character. And though he continued in stage work, his role in the “Back to the Future” trilogy, as Doc Brown, served to endear him to the public much more as someone who plays crazy guys. Since then he’s received accolades as Willy Loman in a production of “Death of a Salesman,” and now he returns to his nutty side as Milton, a friend of three senior citizen bank robbers (Michael Caine, Alan Arkin, and Morgan Freeman) in an updating of the 1979 comedy “Going in Style.” Lloyd, 78, spoke about the film and his career last week in New York.

Q: You did a lot of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows for a long time before you got into film. What do you think finally got you in that door?

A: I was in a production of “Macbeth” in 1974. Christopher Walken was Macbeth, Peter Weller was Lennox, and I was Banquo. Milos Forman (director of “Cuckoo’s Nest”) and a couple of producers came to town, and Milos had this audition where he took on the part of Nurse Ratched, and he had the various actors who were auditioning in chairs like in group therapy. He would ask us questions, and get a dialogue going among us. He’d do things to trigger as much emotional behavior as possible. That was the whole audition, and I guess he saw something in me.

Q: You were already in your 30s when that happened. Had you decided a lot earlier that you were going for a career in acting?

A: I never had any confidence that it was going to work out. I just kept sort of going at it. I remember in high school they would do plays in the theater department. And whoever the English professor was would start saying, “Chris, I’d like to have you in this play.” And it just sort of took hold. I didn’t think about it being a career. I just kept moving in that direction. After high school I studied with Sandy Meisner. But I didn’t have any real conviction that it was going to work out as well as it has.

Q: Was there a day when you realized it really was becoming a career?

A: Oh, yeah. At a certain point I was thinking this isn’t make believe anymore, this is really happening. “Kaspar,” a one-man play I did at the Chelsea Theater Center in Brooklyn in 1973 was my big breakthrough.

Q: And now you’re playing the comic part of Milton in “Going in Style.” Who is this guy?

A: He’s someone who I feel has a tenuous hold on reality. He doesn’t quite get things. I think he’s losing a little bit of his mental capacities, and he’s sometimes confused.

Q: How did the role come to you?

A: [Director} Zach Braff and I were in a production of “Twelfth Night” at the Public Theatre in Central Park in 2002. I was Malvolio and he was Sebastian, and we shared the same dressing room. I had no idea he was directing this film when I accepted the part. The first day I arrived on set, I was stunned. And it was all wonderful.

Q: After doing Jim Ignatowski and Doc Brown, it seems that audiences started expecting you to just do goofy parts. Yet even beyond your stage work, you played really serious roles in “Star Trek III” (the evil Klingon Commander Kruge), the “Sin City” sequel (the heroin-addicted Kroenig) and an episode of “Fringe” (the pianist Roscoe Joyce). Does it ever bother you that you have a reputation for the silly more than for the serious?

A: No, not really. I love playing very diverse characters. I love being able to find a way to convey that person’s sensibility to the audience. To me, the challenge, however strange or odd or serious the part, is to bring out that character’s truth and to share his life a little bit.

Q: A quick rumor question, if you don’t mind. Is it true that you turned down an offer to work for Martin Scorsese?

A: Yes, I did. It was for “The Last Temptation of Christ.” That was in the ’80s. I hadn’t done much film yet, and I just didn’t feel comfortable. I didn’t think I was ready. But looking back, it was not a good move.

Q: I trust that, after all these years, you still love your work.

A: Oh, yeah, that’s why I want to keep doing it. There are times when I don’t love what I’ve done, but I’m totally happy doing this.